Manufacture of meal from raw horn or the like.



Miran STATES ATENT OFFICE.

MANUFACTURE OF MEAL FROM RAW HORN OR THE LIKE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 718,597, dated January20, 1903.

Application filed October 20, 1902. Serial No. 128,064. (No specimens.)

T0 at whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, J OHANN G. BIERICH, a subject of the Emperor ofRussia, and a resident of Menkenhof, near Lievenhof, Russia, haveinvented certain new and useful Improvements in the Manufacture of Mealfrom Raw Horn or the Like, suitable for the production of a homogeneoushorn substance; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full,clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enableothers skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use thesame.

My invention relates to the production from raw horn, hoof, or similarwaste (hereinafter referred to as horn of horn-meal adapted for themanufacture therefrom of a homogeneous horn substance.

Hitherto horn waste has not in practice been reduced to a state of finepowder or meal by a purely mechanical process, for the reason that thehorn in its raw state wears away the grinding-stone 0f the mills to suchan extent that fine particles of stone in injurious quantities becomemixed with the horn-meal produced. Horn-meal produced from horn wastewhich has been subjected to a preliminary steaming, boiling, or the likeprocess does not contain certain natural characteristics of raw horn andis therefore unsuitable for the purposes in view. Artificial hornsubstances produced from born or horn waste which has been subjected toa preliminary chemical treatment are of little or no value even ifalmost free from stone particles, as it is found to so rapidly absorbmoisture as to be incapable of resisting even slightatmosphereinfiuence.

Now this invention has for object to obviate the aforesaid disadvantagesby producing by purely mechanical means horn-meal from raw horn waste.According thereto raw-horn waste, freed, if necessary, from impuritiesby washing and dried, is subjected to a preliminary grinding process ina suitable mill-as, for example, a Oarrs disintegrator and the fineparticles of horn separated therefrom by passing through a sieve havingthirtysix meshes or more to the square centimeter, after which theso-sifted material is subjected to a further grinding between stonesthat are least liable to be affected by wear and tear. Of

various natural and artificial stones that have been experimented withthe one so far found to give satisfactory results is that known asFrench artificial stone and manufactured by the firm of Morill inNuremberg, Germany. For washing the horn either cold or warm water maybe used, and it may be sun or air dried. The preliminary grindingprocess yields only such very small quantities of fine horn-meal as tobe quite insufficient for the manufacture therefrom on a large scale ofa homogeneous horn substance according to this invention. Moreover,thecontinuation of this preliminary trituration beyond a certain point doesnot yield any further material quantity of fine horn-meal. Hence thenecessity for the further grinding process. After the preliminarygrinding and before the further grinding the sieved material is freed bythe aid of magnets from any particles of iron-such, for example, asuailswhich it may contain. The coarse residue remaining on the sieve isagain treated in the first mill and subsequently sieved as before, andso on. Owing to the predetermined and uniform state of granulation ofthe material resulting from the preliminary sifting, it results that thegrinding along with the meal of stone particles is, practicallyspeaking, entirely avoided and a pure raw-horn meal obtained. Now inorder to make the so-produced meal suitable for the subsequentmanufacture therefrom of a homogeneous horn substance the percentage ofmoisture withdrawn from the meal by the drying and by the disintegrationis wholly or partially mechanically returned to it after the secondgrinding process by moistening as equally as possible with a fine sprayof water, and before pressing the percentage of fat may also in somecases be made good by injecting a small quantity of fat, (oil,train-oil, 850., which may be introduced along with the Waterin the formof fine spray,) and particularly when it is desired that the hornsubstance to be made should be more or less supple.

The amounts of water and fat that require to be added to the meal, asabove referred to, are judged by the feel of the meal and may varyconsiderably in meal produced from different kinds of waste.

Having thus described myinvention, what I claim as new therein, anddesire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States of America, is-

l. The process of making raw-horn meal from horn Waste, which consistsin cleaning the waste, drying it, subjecting it to a preliminarygrinding,reinoving any metallic particles that may be present, and thensubjecting the meal to a second grinding, substantially as and for thepurpose set forth.

2. The process of making raw-horn meal from horn waste, which consistsin cleaning the waste, drying it, subjecting it to a preliminarygrinding,removing any metallic particles, subjecting it to a secondgrinding and moistening the meal, substantially as and for the purposesset forth.

J. G. BIERIOI-I.

Witnesses:

VURDICHMANN, J. WEISS.

